Jordanian Darebni TV has been selected as one of the semi-finalists teams for this year’s MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab Region Startup Competition for the Start-up Track

Darebni TV is an online training platform that provides vocational and workplace readiness training in the Arabic Language for customers across the Middle East. The company currently offers training's in the fields of software applications and graphic design. Users receive training in the form of online videos and exercises of various levels based on their skills and needs. They can also track their training progress and review any training material provided in the past to ensure that they are receiving a complete training service rather than simply watching a video online or attending a workshop.

In its early years, the company only offered offline training services providing more than 20,000 trainings in the past seven years. However, with the increased use of technology among Arab users, Darebni TV saw an opportunity to upgrade its business model and venture into the online training industry.

Their mission was simple: to create and deliver innovative, high quality and affordable online Arabic content accessible to the entire Arab region.

“The benefits of having the trainings online include lower costs to our customers and greater flexibility, a service that is currently not heavily available in the region. The fact that we offer our trainings in Arabic is also a competitive advantage that distinguishes us from other training programs,” said Founder and CEO Marwan Ziadat.

Ziadat was inspired to establish the company after witnessing the high unemployment rate in his country.

“The Middle East suffers from the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, currently recorded at 25 percent, which is approximately 80 million people, this is costing the Arab region an average of $50 billion annually. I tried to understand why the numbers were so high and I realized that there was a lack of suitable training amongst the youth and when trainings were available they were either too expensive or not quite relevant. Darebni TV aims to solve this problem by empowering customers and training them on both employability skills and work readiness skills within a few weeks from anywhere and at anytime.” he explained.

Having established three previous start-ups, Ziadat knows a thing or two about starting a business and is keen to expand Darebni TV to offer additional training programs to include entrepreneurship skills, communication skills, languages and much more. His team of 10 which includes certified trainers and instructors are all as enthusiastic and passionate about bringing change to the Middle East through Darebni TV as he is.

The team will attend a two-day workshop in Qatar in April along with 49 other teams, where they will receive coaching, training and network with other entrepreneurs from the Arab region and meet the region’s major players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Semi-finalist ideas or start-ups in ICT, digital media, and mobile will automatically qualify for the Oasis 500 training and acceleration program http://www.oasis500.com/, which is a six-day training program that covers all business aspects, including business modeling, financials, pitching, facilitation and marketing.

“Being selected as a semi-finalist team means a lot to us, the competition will give us the credibility and exposure which could leverage our business and take it to the next level. If there is one thing that we have learned it is that as entrepreneurs, you need to think big and you need to think about solutions rather than simply making money," said Ziadat.